This Convention aims at encouraging international judicial cooperation by requiring courts of member States (i) to respect exclusive forum clauses agreed upon by parties in their commercial agreements (Chapter II of the Convention); and (ii) to recognise and enforce judgments and court decisions rendered abroad (Chapter III of the Convention).READ MORE

Although the case below does not shed light on any new legal development, it is nevertheless an interesting story which offers a prime example of a plaintiff willing to use each and every possible trick in the context of international litigation and arbitration to (unsuccessfully) achieve his goal.READ MORE

In a judgment dated 27 April 2017, the Belgian Constitutional Court (the Constitutional Court) largely confirmed the validity of the Belgian legal provision on State immunity from execution (Article 1412quinquies of the Belgian Judicial Code).

Exceptions to that rule are, however, possible if very strict conditions are met: a party wishing to seize the assets belonging to a State needs to obtain a prior authorisation from a judge (juge des saisies). This judge will only authorise the seizure if (i) the foreign State has “expressively” and “specifically” consented to the seizure of the assets; (ii) the foreign State has specifically allocated those assets to the enforcement of the claim which gives rise to the seizure; and (iii) the assets are located in Belgium and are allocated to an economic or commercial activity.

On 23 March 2017, the Ghent Court of Appeal in Belgium (the Court of Appeal) handed down a lengthy decision on the civil merits in the very well-known Lernout & Hauspie (L&H) case. Although the judgment rendered by the Court of Appeal is very long and covers various legal issues, it contains a specific section on the recognition, in Belgium, of two American opt-out class action settlements.

As most of you know, class action suits are legal devices that allow an individual or a small group of individuals to proceed in court on behalf of a much larger and unnamed group of individuals who have suffered a similar injury and who share common claims.

While class actions form an integral part of the legal framework in the United States, European jurisdictions (with the notable exception of the Netherlands (see my previous post)) tend to be very cautious with respect to this instrument. It is only in June 2013 that the European Union published a recommendation setting out a series of common, non-binding principles that EU Member States should adopt in order to put collective redress mechanisms in place. Based on this recommendation, some EU Members that previously did not allow for collective redress mechanisms have since introduced them into their legal systems.

In sharp contrast with the American class action system – where any individual who fulfils the conditions to be part of a class action will automatically be considered as part of the class bringing the action, unless that member expressively indicates his desire to be excluded from of the proceedings (i.e. “opt-out” system) – most European systems have adhered to an “opt-in” system where plaintiff classes are formed through the expressed consent of their members.

The case at hand therefore concerns an interesting scenario in which the Belgian court, belonging to a jurisdiction where only opt-in class action are allowed, is asked to recognise a U.S. opt-out class action settlement.READ MORE

On 9 December 2016, the French Parliament adopted a law (the Law) which amended the rules on State immunity from the execution of judgments and arbitral awards contained in Article L 111-1 of the French Code on Civil Enforcement Procedures (Article L 111-1). The Law now makes it more difficult for a creditor to enforce, in France, a judgment or an arbitral award on goods belonging to a foreign State.READ MORE